ALTO calls for end to colonialism

Tom Young

Folks,

See Silicon Republic coverage of speech by ALTO's Tom Hickey

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single5332

“Let’s just think about that for a minute. When the Irish Land League sought justice for small farmers, it had three simple demands that summed up what it wanted: fair rent, free sale and fixed tenure. Well if I was to give a simple summary of what we need in the telecoms sector right now it would be: equivalence of access, fair margins, regulatory certainty, effective penalties and open tenders,” Hickey said.

Explaining his demands, Hickey said in terms of equivalence of access: “Other authorised operators must have the same facilities at the same time and on the same terms as Eircom Retail. The only way to guarantee this is to have properly separated wholesale access and retail operations. Fair margins – ComReg must introduce transparent margin squeeze tests. In the case of wholesale line rental, the wholesale price is fixed relative to Eircom’s retail price. I don’t believe the margin allowed to new entrants is sufficient to cover retail activities.

“Regulatory certainty – we need regulatory decisions that can be implemented quickly, but so far the appeals process has only served to delay competition. This is not what it is supposed to do. Effective penalties – at the moment there is no downside to delaying competition, it’s a win-win choice for the incumbent. We need hefty fines imposed for delays or anticompetitive behaviour.

“Open tenders – telecoms markets change rapidly and tariffs have fallen significantly since the introduction of competition. A year is a long time in these markets. Government services should be offered out to tender periodically and not rolled over year after year,” Hickey demanded.

Go on Tom Hickey

dahamsta

Tom Young wrote:

I don’t believe the margin allowed to new entrants is sufficient to cover retail activities.

No one does. It's the open joke in Irish comms: If you want to make money, don't look at your core business, look at what every other country calls value-adds.

adam

damien

Tom Hickey and Brian Maloko. They twins?